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Ellicott City Community Coming To Grips With Church Shooting

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (WJZ)-- Police say the two women shot inside their church office were trying to help the man who killed them. The tight Ellicott City community is now in shock.

Meghan McCorkell has new details on this devastating case.

Police believe the shooter was a homeless man who had turned to the church for help. But they say he turned on the church and came back with a gun.

Inside a place that's supposed to be sacred, it was an unthinkable act.

"A church? I mean, someone goes into a church and kills someone? It's just hard to fathom," neighbor Bob Rose said.

A janitor found Rev. Mary-Marguerite Kohn and church administrator Brenda Brewington shot inside an office at St. Peter's Episcopal Church.

In the nearby woods, 56-year old Douglas Franklin Jones-- a homeless man-- was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Neighbors tell WJZ the church often tried to reach out to the local homeless population.

Nick Nichols lives near the church.

"It's just wrong," he said. "The guy obviously was mentally ill, had some problems and that's the people the church likes to help."

Police say Jones had been coming to the St. Peter's food pantry.

"In recent weeks, the staff members have told us that he's become difficult, belligerent and argumentative. And apparently some of the staff members asked him not to come back," Sherry Llewellyn, Howard County Police Department's spokesperson, said.

But he did, and police say he brought a gun. Friday night, church members gathered to remember the victims.

Rev. Kohn was a co-rector at the church.

Rev. Scott Slater with the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland knows Kohn.

"Many of us remember her very fondly and are saddened as any of us would be about the loss of someone we care about," Slater said.

Loved ones came to Brewington's home to mourn with her family.

"I really hope the Lord will bring them peace and comfort," Nancy Shih, a neighbor, said.

Now the church must come together to cope with the horror that happened there.

Brewington died at the scene Thursday night. Kohn is being kept on life support so her family can donate her organs.

A memorial service is planned for Brewington at nearby St. John's Episcopal Church on Thursday.

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